Alarm raised over groundwater extraction

​The province has also implemented a series of measures to limit the extraction of groundwater, while ensuring the clean water supply for living and production, especially in rural areas.

Farmers in Xuan Loc district are drilling a well for production in the dry season

Concerns of groundwater depletion

According to the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the potential extraction of groundwater in the province reaches nearly 6 million m³/ day; safe mining reserves (40% of the potential reserves) are over 2 million m³/ day. Currently, the province extracts and uses nearly 1.4 million cubic meters of groundwater per day, which has not exceeded the safe extraction level.

According to Deputy Director of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment Nguyen Ngoc Hung, considering each locality, there are currently 4 localities that extract ground water beyond the safe level, including Bien Hoa City and Long Khanh City, Nhon Trach district and Long Thanh district. The purpose of extracting ground water is still mainly for domestic purposes, agricultural production and partly for industrial production.

The People's Committee of Dong Nai Province has issued a policy of restricting or suspending groundwater extraction, especially for industrial production purposes in areas with which tap water or surface water has been replaced. However, the practice of using groundwater for living and production is still quite common. "In Nhon Trach district alone, the extraction of groundwater is meeting nearly 83% of the water demand in the area", said Mr. Hung.

Every year, at the peak of the dry season, farmers race to drill wells to have water for daily life and drought prevention because agricultural production in Dong Nai is highly dependent on groundwater. Mr. Le Ngoc Chanh, a rice farmer in Xuan Tho commune (Xuan Loc District) advised that, a few years ago, each farmer's house only needed to drill 1-2 wells to meet the production needs because of the abundant water. However, at present, most gardeners have to drill 3-4 wells with deeper depth, yet there is not enough water in the dry season. At present, many agricultural production areas are facing difficulties due to groundwater depletion. In particular, even in fields with irrigation water, farmers still need to drill wells in the dry season.

According to the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, the irrigation works of the province only meet more than 10% of the total crop area and mainly serve annual crop production areas, especially the paddy fields. Specifically, the total area of perennial trees in the province with nearly 170 thousand hectares is largely sourced from rainwater, dug wells and drilled wells for irrigation. Thus, the province's crop production is heavily dependent on the source rainwater and groundwater for production.

Restricting the use of groundwater

In order to restrict the use of groundwater, in recent years, Dong Nai has invested in building and installing dozens of water supply works with hundreds of kilometers of pipelines to provide clean water to people, especially in rural areas. As a result, the whole province now has 93 clean water supply works, concentrated in rural areas of Tan Phu, Dinh Quan, Xuan Loc, Trang Bom, Vinh Cuu, Thong Nhat districts and Long Khanh City with the designed capacity enough for about 380 thousand people. The province aims to supply 100% of rural households with clean water by the end of 2020.

The province is also interested in investing in irrigation projects for production. Currently, there are 130 active irrigation projects in the province, including lakes, weirs, and pumping stations to create sources, prevent salinity and drain floods. The irrigation system has basically served the water supply for nearly 21,000 ha of agricultural land; more than 55,900 m³/ day for industry and daily life, and prevention of saltwater and flooding for nearly 9.6 thousand hectares. In 2020, the provincial People's Committee will continue to spend more than 400 billion dong investing in 12 major irrigation works, giving priority to projects on dredging canals, streams and canals, and constructing new reservoirs.

According to the Director of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, Huynh Thanh Vinh: “Dong Nai is also a leading province in replicating the model of economical watering. Presently, the whole province has about 56 thousand hectares of crop areas which have been applied with economical watering systems. This is also one of the effective solutions to save water in agricultural production”.

Phan Anh​